REVIEW: BASQUE - FALLING FORWARD

 

BASQUE - FALLING FORWARD (Independent, 2000): An exceptionally beautiful voice opens CD taking us to the magical music world of Basque through the first song "Somefire". This is the classical music of the future: melancholic, soft, climatic with a lot of emphasis on the feelings expressed through the beautiful female voclas of Maryasque. Elements of celtic music and folk are put together in passages adorned by the keyboard chords and the bass (it is interesting to see how Brandt creates all this atmospheres) to conform this dreaming songs. Arpeggios and vocal lines wrap their sonic qualities in songs like "Grey and Green" or "Kamehameha". It is also impressing how well this duo uses dynamics. The best way to describe Basque´s musi is with the sentence that appears in their website: "The objective of Basque is to give silence its place in music - to create space and let people´s minds breath" . Favorite tracks: "Falling Forward", "Grey and Green" and "Inheritance". Contact: http://basquemusic.com or basque@basquemusic.com )

REVIEW: AS ALL DIE - TIME OF WAR AND CONFLICT

 

AS ALL DIE - TIME OF WAR AND CONFLICT (Crowded Control Activities, 2001): This record can be described with one word: climatic. The fundamental theme in these CD, as is pointed by the title us war, and about this Clint Listing, the main brain behind this, makes his lyrics. There are a lot of keyboards bases and guitars used as support ina way that maybe Pink Floyd could use (in their more melancholic material), I mean, to create certain textures. The CD opens with a militar march and the voice of Clint personifying somebody who is sending his people to war. There are depressing songs that are very interesting like, for example, "Johnny Got his Gun" where Listing´s vocals seem a mix between Roger Waters and Johann Edlund from Tiamat ("Wildhoney" era). We can also point out the darkness in tracks like "Mother Earth" with Listing whispering very softly the lyrics, almost imperceptible, making stronger the feeling of desolation that he is trying to show. Favorite tracks: "Johnny Got his Gun", "A Tear for the Hero" and "The Longest Day". Contact: crowded@relapse.com

REVIEW: ABSCESS - TORMENTED

 

ABSCESS - TORMENTED (Necropolis Recs., 2001): This is the first recording for Necropolis Records form these death metal supergroup that was in the lines of Relapse Recs before. Formed by Chris Reifert on drums and vocals (ex Autopsy and Death), Danny Coralles (ex Autopsy) on guitar and Clint Bowen (Hexx) on guitar. The music on this CD is a death metal that goes back to the roots of the style of bands like Autopsy. Some guitar riffs are very interesting like they were for example in the classic of the aforementioned band, "Mental Funeral". This recording has thirteen tracks where the mainfeature are the more climatic parts like the first solo in "Rusted Blood" or the beginning of "Madness and Parasites" or the last solo of "Death Runs Red". The tortured vocals are all over the CD and you can find in them different textures , from a gutural vocalist to another one that is more a barking one in a Carcass style for example. The sound of the recording is fairly good, but it brings to memory the sound that death metal bands used to have in the beginning of the nineties (I think that the band did this on purpose) and maybe it would be better put the drums a little bit up on the mix and to have a sound a little bit less muddy on the guitars to emphasize the band´s strength. The hooks that Autopsy had in their first recordings are present on this one too in all its splendour. Favorite tracks: "Tormented", "Street Trash" and the spectral "Scratching At The Coffin". Contact: www.necropolisrecords.com .

REVIEW: WOHEDNESS - SKELETAL LIFE

 

WOHEDNESS - Skeletal Life (Independent - 2000): Pure grind/death is what this band does and they do it really well!! A really drummer is the fundamental part of this band that goes to the extreme of what is guttural. The riffs are played at hyperspeed. Do you remember "Scum" era Napalm Death? That is the band that Wohedness made me think about. The principal difference is that Wohedness plays more variety of riffs and include short solos in some parts of their music (is it a fuzz distortion pedal what I hear in the solos?). You can hear all this in songs like "Conspired Possession" or "Keeper to Tormentor" (with the most guttural vocals). I think that this band deserve a better production (eventhough the sound is good) to be more effective (perhaps making the drums sound a little less thin than here). They are really good in what they do. Maybe exploring more with the solos and melodies that they use sometimes will be a good idea. My favorite tracks: "Keeper To Tormentor", "Stenchcore Nextdoor" and "Truth of Fiction" (with short blast beats all over the song and some interesting drum breaks). Contact: corpsecore@excite.com  

REVIEW: TIM KASCH - TIM KASCH

 

TIM KASCH - TIM KASCH (Ubus Recs. - 2001): We have here the elements present through all Ubus Recs. Material: experimentation, noise, sounding madness…but here it seems that the device used to generate tis experimentation is different from the one used in other releases. Here it seems that Tim Kasch is using an analog synthesizer or a machine like that. It is interesting that some passages of this recording made me remember some experimentation that progressive rock bands or fusion bands used to do during their improvisations in the mid seventies. It is interesting to listen how many sounds you can achieve using this devices, sounds that are not heard in other part than here where they take experimentation to other levels. Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

REVIEW: THE SHOUT - ON ARRIVAL

 

THE SHOUT - ON ARRIVAL (Carbon 7 Recs. - 2001): I am not afraid to say that I have never heard group of people with so different vocal ranges before. And the interesting thing here is that they are not using the vocal harmonies in the way a classical chorus or a gospel or jazz vocal group would do. Here there are more influences, this is an eclectic group of people ranging from Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Indian, Classical, Opera, etc.etc. They can recreate great harmonies, vocal counterpoints and melody lines composed by Orlando Gough and Richard Chew who have also written together three outdoor choral pieces: The Shouting Fence, Corona and Journey To the North. This is specially amazing in songs like "Tall stories" a tale about 20th century immigrants thata arrived to North America and the five parts of "Axaxaxas MLO" which is a compendium of the skills of the composers and singers. The whole album is a must for people who likes great vocals, harmonies and counterpoints. In fact there are not instruments used here…the vocals are enough to build everything in a perfect way. Email: carbon7records@compuserve.com

REVIEW: TELESMATA / PRAYING GODS SPLIT

 

TELESMATA / PRAYING GODS - SPLIT CD (Ubus Recs. - 2001): Another experimental explosion from this two projects who dive deep into the forms of sound. Here are presented six songs from Praying Gods and three form Telesmata. As I have said before in the reviews of the other recordings from this artists, what is fundamental here is the search of new sounds created through devices that are not commonly used. Playing with sound and taking them from atmosphere to noise and then back is what makes this recordings so interesting. I wonder if these sounds can be used in a different context which I would love to explore. Favorite tracks: "Drowning River" (Praying Gods), Dissapointment Lake (Praying Gods), "Transmission Error 4" (Telesmata) and "Silicon Mass (Roaster Mix)". Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

REVIEW: TELESMATA - NEOLOGISTICS

 

TELESMATA - NEOLOGISTICS (Ubus Recs. - 2000): Another experimental record from noise/experimental master Robert Kasch who is also the head of Ubus Records. This Telesmata recording brings us fourteen tracks of sonic experimentation with a unique device called the Saylt digital voice synthesizer. This device can make sounds quite different than what one must be accustomed to listen to. What I like here is the variety of sounds that Kasch achieves through the whole album, going from something ambient like to the boundaries of noise in only a couple of minutes. This is for fans of this type of experimental music. My favorite tracks: "Meditation", "Transmission Errors 1 & 2", "Transmission Error 3". Contact: r_kasch@hotmail.com

REVIEW: SYMPHONY X - SYMPHONY X / THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY

 

SYMPHONY X - SYMPHONY X / THE DIVINE WINGS OF TRAGEDY (NEMS Enterprises - 2001): This is the reedition of the first and third album from one of the main power progressive metal bands Symphony X done by NEMS Enterprises in double CD format in a great packaging that includes the lyrics from both albums. The first CD opens with a solemn introduction ("Intro The Dementia") before getting into the clasic "The Raging Season" with amazing choruses (in the vein maybe of Queen) incredible solos (this is a prove of the originality of Michael Romeo for those that say that he is only a copy of Yngwie Malmsteen. The songs are really well constructed (around guitar and keyboards obviously) and doesn´t show the vocals of the great Russell Allen (that is featured in the second CD presented here "The divine…". Songs to remark here are the before mentioned "The Raging Season", "Masquerade" (with that great keyboard/guitar harmony intro), "Absinthe and Rue" (killer guitar riffs , keyboards and double bass drumming) and "Tauting the Notorious" (a power metal race !). The second CD, "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" shows us a more mature and heavier Symphony X with better musicianship, an inmense sound (it is light years far from the one that was in their debut album) and a much better singer (Rusell Allen) with a lot of personality and that can give power and melody to all the songs. "Of Sins and Shadows" opens the CD with great strength and refinement. You can see the band is more tight and is not so focused on Romeo´s guitars or Michael Pinella´s keyboards as it was before (eventhough there are solos all over the place)…in this case the drummer and bassist shine a lot more than on the first record. Songs to point out: This is a killer album and the whole CD has great quality in its musicianship, in the compositional side and in the power/strength side too. If I have to pick one song to sum up it will be "Sea of Lies". Contact: nems@nems.com.ar

REVIEW: SILENT EXILE - DANCING WITH DEATH

 

SILENT EXILE - DANCING WITH DEATH (Naivlys Music - 2000): Silent Exile is a progressive band whose songs are constructed with an axis conformed by Cedric Rioux keyboards (omniprescent through all the recording) and Fabrice Blanchet´s guitars. This is not a mere copy of Dream  Theater, they are really original in what they do mixing the melodies of progressive rock with heavier passages. A distinctive feature of Silent Exile are the vocals of Chriss J.Y. that are not the usual high pitched vocals that bands of the style usually use. His vocals are more bluesier, more rock and roll. Songs are long and complex with a lot of tempo changes, solos and melodies. From ballad like parts such as in the beginning of "Stratosphere " or the beginning of "Glase Maakerstraat" to heavier stuff such as in the first part of "Images of War" called "Thunder on Ahland", this band covers all this range and the spaces in between. I think that some label should check on this band and sign them so they got the production and sound that they deserve. Contact: silent_exile@hotmail.com